KEY STEPS

First steps to a safer future: Introducing The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change

The UNFCCC entered into force on 21 March 1994. Today, it has near-universal membership. The 195
countries that have ratified the Convention are called Parties to the Convention.

The UNFCCC is a “Rio Convention”, one of three adopted at the “Rio Earth
Summit” in 1992. Its sister Rio Conventions are the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and
the Convention to Combat Desertification. The three are intrinsically linked. It is in this context
that the Joint Liaison Group was set up to boost cooperation among the three Conventions, with the
ultimate aim of developing synergies in their activities on issues of mutual concern. It now also
incorporates the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

Preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system is the ultimate aim of
the UNFCCC.

First steps to a safer future: the Convention in summary

The Convention:

Recognized that there was a problem.

This was remarkable for its time. Remember, in 1994, when the UNFCCC took effect, there
was less scientific evidence than there is now. The UNFCCC borrowed a very important line
from one of the most successful multilateral environmental treaties in history (the Montreal
Protocol, in 1987): it bound member states to act in the interests of human safety even in
the face of scientific uncertainty.

The ultimate objective of the Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations
"at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human induced) interference with
the climate system." It states that "such a level should be achieved within a
time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure
that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a
sustainable manner."

The idea is that, as they are the source of most past and current greenhouse gas
emissions, industrialized countries are expected to do the most to cut emissions on home
ground. They are called Annex I countries and belong to the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD). They include 12 countries with "economies in
transition" from Central and Eastern Europe. Annex I countries were expected by the year
2000 to reduce emissions to 1990 levels. Many of them have taken strong action to do so, and
some have already succeeded.

Directs new funds to climate change activities in developing countries.

Industrialized nations agree under the Convention to support climate change activities in
developing countries by providing financial support for action on climate change-- above and
beyond any financial assistance they already provide to these countries. A system of grants
and loans has been set up through the Convention and is managed by the Global Environment Facility. Industrialized countries also
agree to share technology with less-advanced nations.

Industrialized countries (Annex I) have to report regularly on their climate change
policies and measures, including issues governed by the Kyoto Protocol (for countries which
have ratified it).

They must also submit an annual inventory of their greenhouse gas emissions, including
data for their base year (1990)and all the years since.

Developing countries (Non-Annex I Parties) report in more general terms on their actions
both to address climate change and to adapt to its impacts - but less regularly than Annex I
Parties do, and their reporting is contingent on their getting funding for the preparation of
the reports, particularly in the case of the Least Developed Countries.

You can find all Parties' submitted reports and the inventories of Annex I Parties here:
National Reports

Charts the beginnings of a path to strike a delicate balance.

Economic development is particularly vital to the world's poorer countries. Such
progress is difficult to achieve even without the complications added by climate change. The
Convention takes this into consideration by accepting that the share of greenhouse gas
emissions produced by developing nations will grow in the coming years. Nonetheless, in the
interests of fulfilling its ultimate goal, it seeks to help such countries limit emissions in
ways that will not hinder their economic progress. One such win-win solution was to emerge
later, when the Kyoto Protocol to the Convention was conceived.

The Convention acknowledges the vulnerability of all countries to the effects of climate
change and calls for special efforts to ease the consequences, especially in developing
countries which lack the resources to do so on their own. In the early years of the
Convention, adaptation received less attention than mitigation, as Parties wanted more
certainty on impacts of and vulnerability to climate change. When IPCC's Third Assessment
Report was released, adaptation gained traction, and Parties agreed on a process to address
adverse effects and to establish funding arrangements for adaptation. Currently, work on
adaptation takes place under different Convention bodies. The Adaptation Committee,
which Parties agreed to set up under the Cancun
Adaptation Framework as part of the Cancun Agreements, is a major step towards a
cohesive, Convention-based approach to adaptation.

The consolidated versions of the Convention text, including amendments to Annex I and II, in all six
official United Nations languages, have been prepared by the secretariat, and can be found
hereunder.

2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit. In the birthplace of the three Rio
Conventions, the Rio 2012 summit took place on 4 to 6 June 2012. It focused on two themes: a green
economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and the institutional
framework for sustainable development.